Anxiety

Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. Share your own story and learn about other member’s experiences with anxiety.

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BeyondBlue Hi! Check out this post if you're not sure how to start
  • replies: 0

Hi there and welcome to the Anxiety section of the Forums First of all, thank you so much for joining us here. We think it’s amazing that you’ve taken this step to getting support and learning from this Community. You are very welcome here and we are... View more

Hi there and welcome to the Anxiety section of the Forums First of all, thank you so much for joining us here. We think it’s amazing that you’ve taken this step to getting support and learning from this Community. You are very welcome here and we are really interested in what you might want to add to these conversations. We get it, having anxiety makes it hard to share in a public place. Remember, this is anonymous and the Beyond Blue team are here to help if you need it This section is for people who are experiencing anxiety in some form in their lives. This might be in social settings, at work, or just in the day to day. You don’t need a diagnosis to post here. If it feels like the right spot for your post, go right ahead! We know that feeling anxious can make it hard to reach out so we want you to know that getting this far is amazing and a great start. A few tips for getting the most out of this section: Get involved when you can! Posting and replying is the heartbeat of this community and you DO have something worthwhile to share (when you’re ready ) Every experience is different. There is no competition here. We know how challenging anxiety can be and how it comes in all shapes and sizes. What you are experiencing will be respected and supported here. Trust yourself! You are the expert in your experience. This community works because people like you share what has worked for you. Thank you for getting involved and taking a look. We can’t wait to hear from you! Beyond Blue

All discussions

Butterfly101 Crippling Anxiety - things that can help
  • replies: 1

Ok - I woke up this morning in a cold sweat - fear and anxiety were in complete control of me and all morning and most of the afternoon, catasrophic and severely negative thoughts swirling endlessly around in my head - I could not see a way out. I co... View more

Ok - I woke up this morning in a cold sweat - fear and anxiety were in complete control of me and all morning and most of the afternoon, catasrophic and severely negative thoughts swirling endlessly around in my head - I could not see a way out. I could not think straight. Everything was doomed. I couldn’t cope! At around 4 pm I rang the beyond blue helpline, and I started to take deep breaths in and out remembering this is what I had done before to manage my anxiety. It helped. Slow deep breaths in and out. The phone councillor answered and I explained what was happening. She was kind, understanding and knowledgeable. She texted me a list of strategies that could help my condition. Stay in the moment, she said. Don’t let these catastophic thoughts about your future get the better of you. You are not thinking clearly right now. Focus on breathing and relaxing your body and mind. Nothing else. Just aim for relaxation - don’t worry about tomorrow now. She then suggested listening to calming music, so I you tubed ‘meditation music’ and found a clip with the Tibetan flute. I played it and it was very soothing. I thanked the counsel lot and hung up the phone. Lay on my sofa, breathing slowly and deeply and listening to the Tibetan flute. I kept saying to myself ‘go to sleep … just sleep.. just rest you body and mind’ and with my dog lowing next to me I drifted off to sleep! I was out for maybe 3 hours and already feel much better. Had a cup of herbal tea and now watching Dr Mariam Bialik podcast on you tube ‘ Thomas Campbell physicist’ - so interesting and helpful. Good to watch as it puts your negative thoughts about your future in real perspective. Highly recommended! OK I am starting to get hungry so I will leave now. I will not have any alcohol as that makes my anxiety worse and I will not smoke. I will focus on the here and now and think about my future when I am feeling better and have a clearer head. Tomorrow or the next day… no rush! I only have planned two things for tomorrow- take my dogs for a nice long walk in nature and make a nice marinade for a roast lamb. That is it! I am taking time out from my highly destructive thoughts of my future! Hope my story has helped someone!

Guest_26628554 Insomnia
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I wanted to share my experience, because I am struggling with anxiety. It keeps me up at night and I am unable to sleep. I am worried about my new job, and even though I have many years experience I still lay awake at night thinking about all the thi... View more

I wanted to share my experience, because I am struggling with anxiety. It keeps me up at night and I am unable to sleep. I am worried about my new job, and even though I have many years experience I still lay awake at night thinking about all the things that could go wrong and then this will make me look like an imposter, fraud and incompetent. Logically I know this isn't the case, but the anxiety has a strong grip on me that I end up avoiding the situation. Deep down I know this makes things work, it's like I am stuck in a cycle that I can't seem to break out of. It makes me feel guilty and depressed.

jordan Vomiting, GAD, GERD
  • replies: 3

Hello everyone, I have had anxiety for the past 15 years and I managed it as best as I could. I was diagnosed with GAD and PTSD and I am only 38 years old, but the GAD has been around forever. My main problem is physical symptoms of anxiety. I have a... View more

Hello everyone, I have had anxiety for the past 15 years and I managed it as best as I could. I was diagnosed with GAD and PTSD and I am only 38 years old, but the GAD has been around forever. My main problem is physical symptoms of anxiety. I have acid reflux, sometimes I vomit acid. Blood work came back with fatty liver, high cholesterol. I've also had high heart rate and high BP. I 'self medicated' with non-alcoholic beer (around 100 beers a month), high fatty foods and lots of sugar. I have this embedded fear of dying young, but in the same time I do next to nothing to improve my wellbeing. What concerns me the most is that from time to time (recently they have begun to appear more frequently), I get these vomiting and coughing spouts. I usually vomit acid, which may be from the stomach. Today I vomited twice. I am afraid of revisiting the doctor and I don't quite know where it is coming from. Can someone please share their diet and acid reflux+anxiety stories? Any useful information will help so that I may start doing something to improve myself. My only vices are my bad diet, non-alcoholic beer and I play video games a lot. As I type now I have this fear that an anxiety attack might resurface and I will be awake at night or have interrupted sleep. Thank you!Jordan

Guest_18417928 like what it is this? why am i this way, pls?
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i don't understand why i react the way i do. i don't understand why i act and hurt other people the way i do. i’m not particularly suicidal; i just need advice, help and hope please. i didn't see the sun today.i sat inside all saturday, watching flea... View more

i don't understand why i react the way i do. i don't understand why i act and hurt other people the way i do. i’m not particularly suicidal; i just need advice, help and hope please. i didn't see the sun today.i sat inside all saturday, watching fleabag and new girl.i'd like to change someone's life, to really pinpoint meaning into somebody else's life, to be a pillar of change.but i don't know how to do that, and i don't know how to change. i feel like everything else is beautiful in its way, and i think maybe i should get a penpal, in prison or something, and be grateful for all that i have.even when i'm trying to be grateful, i feel selfish, comparing my life to somebody else. i feel this weird mixture of extreme loneliness, but extreme gratitude for all the love i'm recieving in this mess.gratitude is all i have to give i could go to this party next weekfull of people that i'm scared of, that i think hate meand the boy that i'm on at the moment, that i kinda likebut i'm kind of scared of i'm scared because i don't know anythingi never know how people really feeland i had a dream that he told me that he was angry at me, because we did something really vulnerable, and then i kept hiding from speaking about it i heard he likes me, and i validated that physically, before i knew he liked mebut i don't know how i feel about him my two best friends, at school, last week cut me off.they didnt really.one called me to talk about the issues we'd been havingand then i sent things in a similar direction with the other,that we're just not that similar anymore, or that good for eachother.and then i walked away from everyone and sat alone.because that felt like the only choice i hadeven though i have a million choicesi shape my reality. i box myself into this silence everyday.where do i go from here?when i think everybody already dislikes me,and i'm so anxious i cant speak,and i'm now alonewhere do i go from here?

Horrendous_Hexapod I Feel Like My Paranoia Ruined My Life
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I think I’ve always been a paranoid person. From as far back as I can remember I’ve had a variety of fears, ranging from things like the dark to nightmares I had that scared me for days, but instead of fading with time like it typically did with othe... View more

I think I’ve always been a paranoid person. From as far back as I can remember I’ve had a variety of fears, ranging from things like the dark to nightmares I had that scared me for days, but instead of fading with time like it typically did with other kids, I feel feel like my paranoia has gotten exponentially worse over the years.I think it all started to go downhill back in 2015, I remember being home alone with a family friend as my parents were out at a parent teacher interview with my brother. I was watching a YouTube video ranking the worst boyfriends and girlfriends, and I remember the announcer saying “theres very few things that will get you into Hell.” I don’t know why, but for some reason, after he said that I felt the urge to look up what will get you into Hell, and I found a list on some religious website that said things like saying the lords name in vain which, as a recent teenager, I did quite a bit. Over the next few weeks I kept feeling the need to apologise to God for every little thing I did wrong, from swearing to getting angry, to the thoughts in my head, pretty soon I kept having intrusive thoughts, saying that I hated God, that I wanted family member to rot in Hell, that I wanted people and animals to die. I didn’t mean any of it, but I kept apologising in my mind because I thought that if I didn’t something bad would happen, or God would think that I really meant it.Then, in 2016, I started worrying about conspiracy theories. At first it was creationism, and then this theory that dinosaurs never existed. This one got to me because I love dinosaurs. I could’ve just ignored it and went about my day, but I didn’t. I obsessed over everything these people would say, I found myself to listen to every single last one of their arguments, thinking I would be a closed minded idiot if I didn’t, thinking that every time they would come at me with irrefutable proof of their theories, but they never did.But then, at the end of 2019 and well into 2020, I forced myself to get into politics. I had dabbled in things during the “SJW” era, but this time was different. Over the last five years I’ve subjected myself to some of the most horrible ******** I’ve ever heard, first it was about women, then people of colour, then LGBT people, then liberals and conservatives in general. I think what really got to me about these debates is that they actually used scientific sources, but because I wasn’t well versed in politics or psychology, I felt like I had to believe them because I couldn’t rebut much of what they said. Even then, there were also a variety of contradictory sources, so most of the time I didn’t know what to believe.I just don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t keep on living like this, but I force myself to. I’ve never been in a relationship, I’ve struggled through much of school, struggled through uni, struggled through finding a job, I’m not anywhere near where I wanted to be in life by now, and I think it’s at least partially due to these useless worries. I feel guilty on the occasion that I choose not to engage in politics or conspiracies after having seen a certain article or book or whatever, and part of me is telling myself that I’m a coward who doesn’t want to face the real world by coming here, but a bigger part of me is just sad, sad that I’ve wasted so much of my life, sad that I spend hours worrying about things that probably don’t matter, sad that I barely get joy out of things I used to love, sad that I hardly have the energy to do anything.I just really want some help, some advice, anything to stop me feeling the way that I do.

Shelly Shelly
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it’s difficult when what makes you stressed and anxious seems to be the opposite to what causes this for your partner if you can’t do the conversation it seems as though your not interested or you dont care

it’s difficult when what makes you stressed and anxious seems to be the opposite to what causes this for your partner if you can’t do the conversation it seems as though your not interested or you dont care

kingpin anxiety
  • replies: 1

i have suffered from anxiety for years mind always spinning , triggers waiting in queues , standing still talking to other people , sitting on toilet ... sitting , driving both ok tried 2x psychologists in last 12 months a little help but no cure rea... View more

i have suffered from anxiety for years mind always spinning , triggers waiting in queues , standing still talking to other people , sitting on toilet ... sitting , driving both ok tried 2x psychologists in last 12 months a little help but no cure read numerous books recommended but to no avail would like to find a small group in my area where people can meet once in a while and maybe assist each other , this is really taking its toll on me

Guest_88739460 I'm about to quit my 10 -ish -ith join four years...
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and I don't know why.I went from making 6 figures pre covid to working during covid, burnt out very badly, quit in a wave of utter panicked terrible decision making (I thought it was logical and ok at the time) reset, reboot, get back in the field, g... View more

and I don't know why.I went from making 6 figures pre covid to working during covid, burnt out very badly, quit in a wave of utter panicked terrible decision making (I thought it was logical and ok at the time) reset, reboot, get back in the field, get another job... not as much but this was the plan. Bam, I leave because "the boss asked too many questions". I got fired from two more jobs for being weird, sending weird emails, suspecting weird things. I know the job, I did it for a long time pre covid. I cannot take any interaction without thinking its against me, even the 'possibility' and anticipation of someones interaction with me being negative creates the most insane brain breaking flight response I have taken to driving down the highway erratically making loud money guttural hoots of utter anguish..... The worst part though, is when my wife finds out I left ANOTHER job, and my only reaction can possibly be flee in shrieking terror and fantasize about going bush in a daze for 12 hours, snap back to reality, go back and look at her face when she sees if ill actually return this time, have a talk and go on with our lives knowing we will be back here in 8 months, or 2 weeks etc etc....

Gobble Any idea?
  • replies: 4

I need a little help. On a generalised anxiety test perscribed by my docter i ticked almost every box but one does that mean i have generalised anxiety or not? idk. I definitly think i do as i have often panic attacks and worry about literally everyt... View more

I need a little help. On a generalised anxiety test perscribed by my docter i ticked almost every box but one does that mean i have generalised anxiety or not? idk. I definitly think i do as i have often panic attacks and worry about literally everything but i just want to confirm.

LucreziaBorgia Similar issues?
  • replies: 1

Hey everyone, For context, I am a Uni student who relies on her parents financially. Almost 2 years ago my parents brought a house and thus we have a mortgage. My father works in a sector that is very competitive nowadays and hasn’t been able to get ... View more

Hey everyone, For context, I am a Uni student who relies on her parents financially. Almost 2 years ago my parents brought a house and thus we have a mortgage. My father works in a sector that is very competitive nowadays and hasn’t been able to get work since September. Obviously this is affecting both my parents mental health due to stress. my issue is that I am also struggling significantly. I have always had anxiety and depression but since August last year I have not articulated this to anyone. in August my little sister had a bad self harm episode which really affected me but since my parents where focusing on her I didn’t tell them so they wouldn’t need to worry. Now with my dad unemployed I am doing the same thing they think I’m fine but I’m not. i am also the de facto therapist letting my parents both talk about their worries with me but I really just want someone to comfort me and tell me I will be ok. I am exhausted taking on everyone else’s mental load. due to the dynamics of my family I simply can’t reveal how much I am struggling so I was wondering what people would suggest I do/ has anyone been in this situation I can’t afford a therapist at the moment so that’s off the cards. I love my studies at uni and am heavily involved in campus life and my worst fear is I will need to start working and study online as my parents won’t be able to support me anymore, this would destroy me as Uni is my relief from all this and is a fear that keeps running through my head.